Talk:Wikipedia

The logic of the 1-argument version of this template seems to be backwards. In my opinion, it should be as follows:

0 argument

use and display page title

1 argument

use and display argument

2 arguments

use one and display the other argument

Currently, the 1-argument version links to the page title provided, but still uses the page title for display purposes. This means that the proper page title is most often hidden and another one displayed instead - leading to {{wikipedia|Foo|Foo}} being used where {{wikipedia|Foo}} should suffice. -- Cid Highwind 13:09, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

Same logic that follows with the {{mbeta}} template I recall. It's a pretty hectic change if we make it though. We've lived with it this long, why change now? :) -- sulfur 13:15, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure it really would be hectic. I just found this strangeness via the Slaver article, where this template links to a WP article called "Thrint" (because that's their name in other fiction), but still displays their "Trek name". I think a link should typically display the proper title of the target page, and only under specific circumstances should not (which the 2-argument version would still allow). Changing the behaviour of this template will surely change some displayed titles, but only a small amount of those will be changes for the worse. Can you bot-check how many template calls actually use one (but not two) arguments, and how many of the 2-argument ones have the same string as both argument values? -- Cid Highwind 13:25, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

Close to 1700 use at least one piped argument. About 300 use two arguments, and 54 have identical first and second arguments. All 1700 are going to have to be given a look-over though. -- sulfur 13:36, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

Aside, mbeta has about 750 with one piped argument, ~330 with two arguments, and about 160 with identical arguments. -- sulfur 14:07, November 28, 2010 (UTC)

mbeta and mbeta-title have been converted to the following format:

0 argument

use and display page title

1 argument

use and display argument

2 arguments

use one and display the other argument

I think that I've converted all of the calls to them properly, but will have to give the DB another check-over tomorrow to see if there are any that I've missed, and at the same time, I'll start working on the links to the Wikipedia template too. -- sulfur 01:59, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

And now {{wikipedia}} has been converted, along with most of the template calls. I think. There's still standard work looking at them all to be done, but the main task is complete. -- sulfur 17:17, November 29, 2010 (UTC)